Music: Then and Now, Good and Horrible.

Who would you rather listen to?

When someone says to you "I love Rock N Roll", what is the first thing you think of? Aerosmith, or Fall Out Boy? What makes "Rock" music these days? Is it the band? Or is it all the buttons that are hit by producers?

In the 1970's and early 1980's, bands would sit in a studio and would use their instruments to make all the sounds on their album. The soundboard didn't have buttons that made the instrument sounds on a record. If someone was performing a guitar solo and needed to overlay a second sound of two guitars performing together, that wasn't just one time and "tweaked", it was actually done by that person. Albums took more time, they took more work and more effort and in the end came out with perfect sounds that even to this day sound amazing.

The "Classic" Rock...

The song above almost sounded like a band sat in a studio, hit record, and just jammed. The sound is natural, it's fun and is definitely not "mixed" or "put together". This kind of music began to change when the 80's came, when bands performed but started to like the idea of having more control over the sound of their music. By the 1990's very few "Rock" bands sounded original, and the ones that did were normally depressive (Nirvana) or considered "Alternative". If the sound was natural and fun like Steely Dan, it was considered "Pop" and not Rock music. Yet the music was still music and not something created by a person sitting still behind a giant sound board.

In the year 2012, we find ourselves unable to find music of such a sound. There is nothing out there today that is carefree, fun, upbeat, uptempo, and fresh. Everything has been tweaked, mixed, artificially made, and isn't even original. Almost all new music lately has been a techno/rave style song that has had lyrics put to it. Or there are pieces of older songs spliced into new songs and that is used for "new inspiration". What happened to "musicianship"? Hanson is one band in particular that is normally ridiculed as their original song "Mmmbop" was obviously pop music, written by young kids and not "cool". But with their new song "Thinking 'Bout Somethin'", it is fresh and unique and performed by their instruments not by a soundboard.

Let's see Usher do that, or Chris Brown, or any other new artist. Even "rock" bands such as Fall Out Boy before they broke up could not put out an album that was all natural. You could tell throughout the album they relied on the "tweaks" to create perfection, and that brings up another question...

When was perfection so important? When did we as an audience become so hard on artists and musicians who obviously have more talent than we do that we pressure them for perfection? The days of the fun album are over, the days of the simple record are gone. Now all we have...is artificial sound.

7 comments

Thank you! I spend more time listening to CDs or MP3s in the car now than the radio these days. I'm tired of listening to packaged music.

Theeyeballkid 4 years ago

Excellent hub ejgilbert. I agree with you. Music is best when it is a little rough around the edges. Overproduction, autotuning and computer trickery rips the soul out of music. You are right also about Rock. Todays mainstream Rock is not rock at all. It is polished up pop music made to sound like rock, in reality it is all about the image and trying to shift as many units/downloads as possible.

There is still worthwhile rock music being written but it takes effort to find it and you wont find it on mainstream media

Good Hub!!

The Finance Hub 4 years ago from Portland, Oregon

Great hub, I think I like the then music more than now lol. Voted up and interesting, hope you enjoy my hubs as well!

Alecia Murphy 4 years ago from Wilmington, North Carolina

I understand your argument but I think it's also a generalization. I love older music more but I can appreciate younger artists. I see that some people like the rawness of older music but times have changed and I think people have to be conscious of that as well. With rap as well, I agree that some of it is degrading to women, grossly violent, as well as lacking in depth but I believe everyone has a right to express themselves whether or not I agree with it. But I do like how you mention autotune, I agree that it's made some music unbearable and it doesn't seem to be looking up. Interesting hub!

sidearmkills 4 years ago

Nice selection of music, some of the ones I listen to

chaya 13 months ago

dire straits is the best '80's band. knopfler is a genius. he still blows me away; dire straits and his solo stuff. no other band comes close.